What are WorldSkills UK Competitions?
Skills competitions are designed by industry specific experts, and assess an individual’s knowledge, practical skills and employability attributes against set criteria in a competitive timed environment. You can be any age to enter but can have no more than 5 years experience within the industry.
The benefits of getting involved
Competition activity develops employability and technical skills to high levels of excellence and enhances attributes valued by employers such as:
- Teamwork
- Problem solving
- Time management
- Judgment
- Working under pressure
- Confidence
How to get involved
Each year registration opens in February/March and closes in March/April, this is when you’ll need to go to the website to register with World Skills UK. You can register your interest at any time here www.worldskillsuk.org/skills/national-competitions/
Once you are registered there are several stages of the competition:
- The Entry Level – the first stage of the competition is a photographic entry of a specific design. You’ll be given the Schedule once you have registered. You’ll need to design, create and submit the photos as instructed in the information you will receive. It will need to be completed within a specific time frame.
You must gain a specific mark or higher to be invited to a heat, which is the next stage. The percentage needed to pass will be indicated to you with all of your other information after registration.
- National qualifiers (HEATS) – Heats are arranged and held over a variety of locations and if you make it through the passive stage, you will be invited to attend a heat. On this day you will usually be asked to design, create and bring with you one design. A schedule will be provided to you prior to the heat date. On the day you will then be expected to create designs under competition conditions, using flowers and sundries provided to you and within the schedule specifics given to you. Floristry Judges will then mark your work and provide feedback to you on the day.
- Announcement of the finalists – Once all the heats are finished the 8 competitors with the highest overall marks will be announced and you will be notified if you are finalist.
- National Finals take place at World Skills UK – This is event takes place in November. All of the skills sectors will compete in their finals and schools/colleges often bring their pupils to visit the finals so that they can see the career options available to them for study. At these events, if you are a finalist, you’ll be assigned a booth to work in during the competition which takes place over two days. You’ll be required to produce a range of designs under timed conditions to schedules which you will be provided with. There will be some designs where you don’t know the schedule or the flowers available to you until the clock starts. The Floristry Judges mark all your work after you have finished each round.
The competition usually ends on Friday. The winners, over the past few years, have been announced at the virtual World Skills UK Medal ceremony where the Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals are awarded.
You can read the official World Skills UK Floristry Technical Handbook Here which will explain each stage of the competition in more depth.
In addition why not visit our Floristry Skills page where you will find videos on techniques, how to prepare your workstation and toolbox for the competition as well as The UK Floristry Judges Guild videos on how to read a schedule and the marking facets.
Why compete?
The WorldSkills UK competition-based training programmes are designed by industry experts and enhances the practical skills and knowledge taught on training courses. This assesses an individual’s employability attributes against set criteria in a competitive timed environment. The programme has a real impact on those taking part, with 90% of previous entrants saying their career progression improved after taking part and 86% stated their personal and employability skills had improved.
For information on this years competition visit our post HERE
If you are a tutor with students who wish to compete or a potential competitor with questions you can contact Jo@britishfloristassociation.org
